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My mother’s mother, Laura Ramlo, and her husband Bert, owned a grocery store in Upsala, Minnesota. (photo attached) Most of us called her Grandma Ramlo instead of Grandma Laura and some just called her Gram. They lived behind the store in small quarters. The bedroom didn’t even have doors. They heated the living space with a fuel oil burner that was in the dining room and it had to be filled often. The store was heated with a wood burning stove. The wood and the fuel oil were stored in the attached warehouse. That was convenient. Gram was famous for her Thanksgiving dinners which were more like a feast. Owning a grocery store made it easy for her to offer turkey, beef and pork some years. Grandpa Bert would complain about her “raiding the stock” but not too hard. My job was to fill the crystal water glasses with water from the cistern pump in the kitchen. The kids would sit at card tables in the living room. We would always sing the “doxology” and express our thanks for the goodness in our lives and the food on the table. Every year, Gram would offer her apologies for the food, even though it was awesome. “I don’t know why I keep doing this, I just can’t cook anymore.” Not true Gram. I trust that you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving feast tomorrow.

The APHC show this week is one final fall rebroadcast before the live shows start again. A show originally broadcast last November from the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver, Colorado. Trey Anastasio plays “Back on the Train” and “Water in the Sky,” The Staves perform “Sadness Don’t Own Me” and “Blood I Bled,” and Tig Notaro joins Chris to discuss life as a comedian. Plus: Chris Thile’s entry in the Thanksgiving Music canon, “The Elephant in the Room”; even more music from Aoife O’Donovan; and a message from a new sponsor, Container Pants (the only Big Pants you’ll ever need.)

“If more if us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” J.R.R. Tolkien author of The Hobbit.